Soldier of Rot
by Leonora K
Summary: Sailor Lead Crow reflects.


It was a dark, warm and humid night in an alleyway behind the radio station studio. The five Sailor Soldiers facing Sailor Lead Crow clung together without touching, their determined stances radiating an aura of hope, their skin flashing beneath the moonlight. The soldier's braced arms and proud chests were drawn in close to Sailor Moon, like moths to a flame, Sailor Moon was the brightest light of them all. Sailor Lead Crow could only see something pitiful.

"We have a duty to protect this planet!" They shouted.

"I've heard it many times!" Was her instant response. She clasped her whip tighter as a strange stirring like the opening of a void in her gut swept a sickly wave of heat through her body, hotter than the nighttime air.

Sailor Lead Crow was not sure how many times now she had heard Sailor Soldiers, half dead, bloody and broken, say words almost exactly the same as the ones that these soldiers repeated tonight. They said these words to her and the other Anima-Mates, and Lead Crow shamed these sentiments. She and her fellows would squash the virtuous soldiers into the ground, or burst them into the air- after all, their noble speeches and honorable words were only words, lost into the sky, coming out of red mouths but drifting upwards to disappear into oblivion.

Why did they value their planets so much? Sailor Lead Crow would sometimes muse to herself. Everything has to come to an end, she would reason, why not sooner than later?

Sailor Coronis had been one of those half-dead Soldiers spouting red love from her cold lips. Sailor Coronis had been beautiful, like all Sailor Soldiers were, and strong. She was the only Sailor Soldier in her solar system. There were frozen, silent small planets circling the outer rims of her Solar System, far, far away, but nobody knew where the Sailor Soldiers for those planets had gone, or if they ever existed at all. The half-lost history of Coronis was passed down orally for the longest time, and for most of its known history Coronis was relatively isolated. Shrouded in mystery, the times before Sailor Coronis the First- as she was called- were figments of legend, the history of this system lost to antiquity and speculation.

Sailor Coronis the First had a remarkably bright flame behind her eyes. She was without a doubt not the first Sailor Coronis, but for what it mattered to the people of Coronis she might as well have been. With gentle care and discipline, Sailor Coronis the First passed down the flame behind her eyes onto her successor, and her successor passed it down to her successor, and so on through the ages. It was an eternal light, a legacy that all Sailor Coronis's carried. She had revolutionized Coronis after eons of war and stagnation, so all future incarnations called upon the spirit of Sailor Coronis the First in times of distress. The Sailor Coronis that Sailor Lead Crow knew kept the undying flame continuously kindled brightly. The desire and passion to protect was imbued in every consecutive Sailor Coronis, she was a sole guardian and legendary warrior. She took down every threat that posed itself to harm her planet or those she was sworn to protect. She could call upon her people and they would follow her every word.

Sailor Lead Crow had forgotten her true name soon after she killed Sailor Coronis. Sailor Lead Crow was a bastardized name, foreign to any poor soul across the cosmos who may have been familiar with Sailor Coronis. Galaxia chose the name; Galaxia loved metal. She branded Sailor Lead Crow with a standardized and easily understood title after Sailor Lead Crow killed Sailor Coronis and brought her shining Star Seed to Galaxia. Kneeling before the frightful and masterful woman with an offering of the brightest Star Seed she thought was possible, Sailor Lead Crow's heart had raced, and her body had trembled.

Holding Sailor Coronis's star seed within her body ceased being strange soon. While Sailor Lead Crow yearned for her own Star Seed to become a true Sailor Soldier, the bright light of Sailor Coronis's mislaid crystal was enough to uphold her until she could fulfill her own dreams completely.

In it's past, as it opened up to outsiders, Coronis had gained a reputation as an excellent breeding ground of warriors and guardians. Often, Sailor Soldiers from other systems would visit Coronis on special trips. They selected the top students from training programs to be their personal sentinels, who would also up-keep the Sailor Soldier's planet and run business when they were away or busy. Usually allocating the warriors they selected natural satellites to live on, the visiting Sailor Soldiers were almost never displeased with the prime warriors and advisors they took home from this lonely planet.

Sailor Lead Crow had desperately wanted to succeed, to be selected and sent away to exotic places as a top warrior. She wanted to be chosen to have a duty. She wanted to be regarded in the highest honor by her peers, who would jubilantly and tearfully cheer her on as she made her final departure. Their eyes would be full of awe and admiration, the same eyes that looked upon the ultimate warrior, Sailor Coronis, with unending shameless wonder.

There were many glorious rivals in Sailor Lead Crow's younger years, and all of them seemed to trump her somehow. Sailor Lead Crow lived for the thrill of competition and unbridled, fervent battle. Nonetheless, throttled by her repeated failures, Sailor Lead Crow continued to wait.

Blue-haired and dainty, Sailor Aluminium Siren had been Sailor Lead Crow's designated rival from the moment they met as Anima-Mates. Mermaid, Sailor Aluminium Siren's planet, was one of many in its system. It was covered in water and teaming with life. The people of Mermaid were on the whole carefree, as if they had discovered the secret of peace, forgotten that it had a name, but retained it's essence in every cell of their being. Sailor Aluminium Siren had taken up the craft of singing when she lived on Mermaid.

The name of the planet itself could be translated millions of times over, uniquely for each culture that heard its name. However each culture understood it, the planet's name always reflected a numinous yearning of the sea and its depthless enchantment and romance. A mystical creature, a legend, a magical incantation, Mermaid was known by many names, and only those who spoke the language of the people of Mermaid knew it's true name and that name's true depth. Soon, Sailor Aluminum Siren cried out her Galaxia-given title to anyone who could hear.

Carrying Mermaid deep in her soul everywhere she went across the universe, Sailor Aluminium Siren was luscious. For once, Sailor Lead Crow felt the domination she had longed for over all previous rivals. Not any sort of flake, though, Sailor Aluminium Siren was certainly worthy. From keeping order on conquered worlds to exploring frontier planets creaking at the edge of Galaxia's growing shadow, Sailor Lead Crow was both taken and taken aback by her rival's ability to be sweet and pure while also being a barefaced killer.

Sailor Lead Crow could never tell Sailor Aluminium Siren what the other woman meant to her, because Sailor Lead Crow was not sure Sailor Aluminium Siren would understand.

Sailor Coronis's eyes were a very flat gray in her last moments. Sailor Lead Crow remembered looking into them and seeing static. It had been thrilling, her whip stained with blood. Now, in the balmy heat of a clear, blessed, starry night in an alleyway behind a radio studio, Sailor Lead crow desired to see the eyes of the Sailor Soldiers standing before her become dull with that same defeat.

They had killed Aluminium Siren, and stopped Sailor Lead Crow from hearing Sailor Aluminium Siren's home world ballads once more. When she heard those songs, Sailor Lead Crow had had to remember that she was not dreaming, and stop her hands from reaching out to her rival's skin.

The sickly void in Sailor Lead Crow's guts persisted as she reeled to attack this system's chosen warriors. Sailor Lead Crow knew that one day she would be a real Sailor Soldier as they were, or at the very least she would go down in legends of the new galaxy as a worthy guardian, wielder of rot, soldier, duty-bound and noble woman for the mighty Galaxia. If not bound to her damned planet, a futile point of loyalty, she bound to her chosen destiny. Deep in her soul, she was likewise bound to her lost rival. But she would not falter, like a true Coronis warrior.

For the longest time, a vivid flame had burned behind Sailor Lead Crow's eyes.


End file.
